1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and method, particularly to an apparatus for and a method of extracting (cutting out) a desired image portion from an original image displayed on a screen of a display device, and an apparatus for and a method of further extracting a part of the partial image, moving the part of the image, and arranging (editing) or storing a plurality of partial images upon correlating with each other.
Further, the present invention relates to an image synthesizing system comprising a client computer and an image synthesizer which can communicate data to each other and an image synthesizing method in the image synthesizing system, the client computer and the image synthesizer which constitute the image synthesizing system, and an image separating method.
2. Description of the Background Art
The format of image data includes GIF (Graphic Interchange Format), EPSF (Encapsulated PostScript Format), and so forth.
A color is expressed using a color palette (e.g. of 256 colors) in the GIF. A desired part of an image (a partial image) can be specified in the original image of the GIF format. The contour of the partial image can be designated as desired. An area (background) other than the specified partial image in the original image is represented by a set of image data of a transparent color. The GIF format has such inconvenience that the specified partial image and the background image are always treated as an integrated image data. Further, an image which is expressed using colors close to colors in nature (e.g., 16,000,000 colors) (referred to as a natural image or a picture of a scene) cannot be represented by the GIF format.
The EPSF is suited for graphics and graphics is expressed by a vector. Since a picture of a scene hardly be expressed by a vector, the picture of a scene cannot be also handled in the EPSF format.
On the other hand, when a subject image (a user image) picked up by a still video camera, a movie video camera or the like is fetched into a computer, and a color image is printed using a color printer, image data representing the user image is subjected to color correction depending on the printing characteristics of the color printer.
With the development of the computer, it has been possible for a user himself or herself to inlay the user image, in a position, in which a user image is to be inlaid, on a template image representing the background of the user image. A composite image obtained by inlaying the user image in the template image can be also printed using a color printer that the user has.
Even in such a case, the characteristics of the color printer is known by the user, and the user himself or herself stores in the computer image data representing the user image and image data representing the template image. Therefore, it is possible to separately take out the user image data and the template image data, and separately subject the user image data and the template image data to color correction depending on the characteristics of the color printer prior to the synthesis of the user image and the template image.
The user image data which has been subjected to the color correction and the template image data which has been subjected to the color conversion are synthesized to produce the composite image data, so that the composite image obtained by the printing exhibits proper colors as a whole.
Consider an image synthesizing system comprising a client computer and an image synthesizer located at a place spaced apart from the client computer. In such a system, when a template image and a user image are synthesized as described above in the client computer, image data representing a composite image is transmitted from the client computer to the image synthesizer, and the composite image is printed using a color printer connected to the image synthesizer, it is difficult to separate the template image and the user image from the composite image in the image synthesizer. Since it is difficult to separate the template image and the user image from the composite image it is difficult to individually perform the most suitable color conversion (inclusive of color correction) conforming to the template image and the most suitable color conversion (inclusive of color correction) conforming to the user image in the image synthesizer.
When the whole of the composite image is subjected to color conversion, even if the color conversion is most suitable for the template image, the color conversion may be, in some cases, unfavorable for the user image, or vice versa.